Disclaimers: I do not own Naruto, or any of the characters! The only things I do own are my OC's (which are the Akatsuki children and some people who will show up soon)
It's been a month since Pein saw his daughter cry and he was trying to get to the bottom of it. It was a shame that he wasn't very bright. The answer was right in front of his eyes.
"Hime! Hurry your ass up and let's get to school already!" Zōsaku (Hime's boyfriend) snapped at her from the bottom of her 2nd story window,
"Yes Saku!" she called back as she finished brushing out her long, auburn hair and made her way out of her room. Just as she was about to exit the base, Megami stopped her,
"Are you leaving already, Hime?" she asked,
"Yeah, Saku is waiting for me, I need to go," she said, as she tried to pass her sister, but was stopped when Megami put both of her hands on her shoulders,
"Hime, listen to me, Zōsaku seems a little bit….controlling, if you know what I mean, is there anything you want to talk about with me?" she asked and for a split second, she saw sadness in Hime's eyes, but it suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a bright happy smile,
"Nope, everything is fine, Megi, now I really need to get going, I can't keep Saku waiting!" she said and pushed her way passed Megami,
"Hime," Megami called and the said girl stopped with her hand on the doorknob, "be careful," it grew silent for a moment before Hime answered,
"You shouldn't worry about me, everything is fine," and disappeared out the door.
Meanwhile, Pein had watched all this from the shadows,
'What was all that about?' he asked himself, but just shrugged it off and left.
-x-
"Imōto!" A voice called out and the said raven haired girl turned to who was calling him,
"Hey Okane," she greeted,
"Do you want to walk to school together?" The albino asked and Imōto nodded,
"I'd love to," they started walking and not long after, Okane started talking in a low threatening voice,
"You know where he is, don't you?" Imōto looked at him with curiosity in her eyes,
"Who are you talking about?"
"Ato, of course, who else?" he asked and shot the girl a glare, she simply looked away,
"He stops by from time to time, but he never stays for long. Just long enough to check up on things going on in the village, Nakama is in the same class as his little sister and so he checks up on her too,"
"Do you know when he will come by again?" Imōto shook her head,
"He comes once a month, last week he told me that he probably won't be coming back again,"
"Why is that?"
"He is in a new organization, they call themselves the Ikustaka and if they find out about Ato's trips to Amegakure, they might just come and destroy the village,"
"Ikustaka? I never heard of them,"
"Of course you haven't, they are a secret organization who have been around for years, only the worst villains know of them. Your family might have heard of them."
"Then why would Ato be a part of that?"
"They gave him the offer whenever his mother died, I guessed they saw him worthy enough to join them," Okane looked away, it was hard to hear that his best friend was a part of this organization that may have been worse than the Akatsuki, "There is something else you need to know," Imōto said and Okane looked back at her,
"What is it?" he asked
"It was the Ikustaka that killed 4 members in the Akatsuki," Okane stopped dead in his tracks,
"W-What did you say?" he stuttered,
"Ikustaka killed almost half of the original 10 Akatsuki members," Imōto said in a sad voice, "I just thought you should know,"
"Why the hell would Ato do that! He joined an organization that killed his mother! Our Sensei!" Okane yelled, losing his temper now, Imōto looked away from the frightening teen,
"He wanted to get his revenge on them, just like you do now," she said and Okane just started to walk off,
"No matter what happens, I will find Ato and kick his ass! He betrayed us no matter what his reason was!" Imōto stared after him and sighed,
"I'm not in the mood to go to school today," she said and began walking to the book store.
-x-
It was the middle of the night and everyone was asleep except for Pein, who lay in his bed, thinking.
'What has happened to this family, how the hell did we end up like this?' he sighed 'Sasori left, our great leader betrayed us. Maybe it was wrong to give him that spot. I mean, what I did was stupid and just plain wrong, but I never just abandoned us. When I stepped down I thought I made the right choice in acing Sasori leader, guess I was wrong. And what happened after that?' he looked at the empty spot next to him on the bed and his heart began to ace, 'Deidara, Hidan, Itachi, and…and Konan go and get themselves killed. How could this have happened to them? Why did this have to happen? They weren't as bad as everyone thought they were, they really were good people, great parents to their children, and loyal to the ones they loved. So why did this happen? He went back to looking at the ceiling, 'And now Hime is getting hurt somehow and she won't open up to me. What could she be afraid of? Why is she hiding this from me? All I want to do is to make her happy! …' He sighed deeply to himself 'Who am I kidding? Of course she won't open up to me, I mean, why would she? After her mother died, I became depressed; I stopped caring about what my own kids were doing. I just kicked them out of my life for half a year, and I didn't care what kind of problems they were going through, it will be a long time before they trust me again,' he sighed and sat up. He noticed something blue and round sitting on his dresser. He starred at the object for a moment before grinning hugely.
-x-
The next morning came and The Akatsuki found themselves all downstairs for breakfast (excluding Pein).
"Morning," Akuma said as he walked into the kitchen,
"Hey Aki~" Hime said and started to make him a plate full of eggs, bacon, and toast.
"What do you have planned today?" He asked his best friend,
"I need to go to work, a new dress had come in from Sunagakure and they wanted me to model it," Hime answered as she handed him a plate, Akuma nodded and thanked her,
"Well if you have time tonight, do you want to go see a movie?" he asked,
"I can't Aki, sorry, Saku wants me to go to a party with him," she said and frowned. She didn't like how Saku always made her go to parties that always ended up with her boyfriend getting drunk and hurting her.
"I thought you didn't like going out to parties," Akuma said and she shook her head,
"I don't, but Saku does, and he always wants me to come along," she said,
"Hime, why don't you just dump that guy? He's no good for you!"
"Akuma, I love him," was all she said, before picking up her purse and kissing him on the cheek, "I need to get going, I'll see you at school on Monday," and with that, she disappeared out the door.
"What was all that about?" Yahiko asked from the kitchen table,
"It was nothing, Buddy," The Uchiah teen said with a sigh, "I need to go run a few errands," he said and walked out the door. Kagayaku tugged on the sleeve of Ban's shirt,
"Who was that, Sissy?" she asked,
"That was Hime's best friend, Akuma, they have been together before I was even born, un," she answered and Kagayaku's eyes grew wide,
"Awe you sewious?" she asked and Ban nodded,
"Totally, un," she said.
When Pein came down for breakfast he bouncing an inch-long blue bouncy ball. He didn't even bother to sit down; he just stood in the middle of the kitchen, bouncing the ball, all his attention on it.
"Hey, what's that?" Sasori asked as everyone watched the auburn haired man play with a child's toy. Pein stopped bouncing it and showed Sasori the ball,
"This is Bob, he's my new friend!" he said in excitement, and then went back to bouncing the toy. Sasori sweat dropped,
"Right~" he said and stood up, "Girls, I need to go get some work done. Stay in the base, and tell me if you girls go anywhere," he said and his daughters nodded, and he left.
"I'm going to go train outside, un," Ban said and turned to Kokoro, "You want to help me?" she asked,
"Sure, jiko,"
-x-
Night time came around and Hime was now in a short red dress and boots that she thought made her look like a hooker (which she found totally uncomfortable and humiliating).
"So Zōsaku, who is this chick?" A dark haired girl (who wore a shorter dress then Hime), asked as Zōsaku took a huge gulp of beer that was being served at the party.
"This is my bitch, Hime," he said and placed his hand way too low on Hime's back. She shivered and tried to pull away, but he just grabbed her and pulled her closer to him. Hime could smell the beer on him and was disgusted.
"Oh, so your Megami's sister?" the girl asked and Hime looked up at her,
"You know Megami?" she asked,
"Yeah, she's in my theater class, she's pretty cool," the girl said, Zōsaku scoffed,
"Please Akie, you're talking about Megami here, she's more of a bitch than Hime is," he said and Hime shot him a glare,
"Megami is my sister, don't you dare insult her in front of me!" she snapped at him and that made her boyfriend clench his teeth,
"It's not just me who thinks that, Hime," he said and then spoke up so everyone around them could hear, "who else here thinks Megami is a stuck up bitch?" Everyone in the room (except Hime and Akie) made an agreeing noise and this made Hime really mad. She took the beer that Zōsaku was holding and threw it on him.
Some of the people around them starred, Akie's eyes widened. Everyone knew how low tempered Zōsaku was. The said boy looked at his girlfriend in shock,
"Megami is a wonderful person, and I don't care who you are! You will not call her a bitch while I'm around, you hear me?" she yelled at him and he just glared back at her. Zōsaku grabbed her roughly by the arm and dragged her outside.
-x-
Ban and Kokoro were in the middle of the forest, panting and laying down facing each other's directions. They had been training all day and have now decided to take a break.
"Great job, jiko, I can tell your getting stronger," Kokoro commented as she looked at her best friend. Ban worked with bombs, just like her mother had. The only difference was that she did not posses Deidara's hand mouths, so she was taught to improvise. Instead she used her own mouth and concentrated all her chakra in into molding the clay and making it explode on her command.
Kokoro on the other hand had no traits from Kakuzu or Hidan. Instead, she worked with water (which was an advantage, since it was always raining in Amegakure). The said girl looked around and saw the damage they have done. A bunch of the trees around them had been knocked over and the ones that were still standing had been severally damaged.
"Thanks, you're getting pretty strong too, un," Ban said, they laid there for awhile until they both sensed someone approaching. They sat up and saw Yahiko and Mizu walking their way.
"Hey, your dad's wondering where you are, Ban," Mizu said,
"Has my dad asked about me, jiko?" Kokoro asked him and Mizu looked at her a little uncomfortable,
"Not really… he's been at work all day," he answered and the blue haired girl looked down,
"Of course, he's always too busy with work, and Okane is always focused more on being a great Jashinist that he never has time for me anymore." Kokoro brought her legs against her chest and wrapped her arms around them so she was on a little ball, "I wish that idiot was still alive, at least he paid attention to me, jiko," By 'idiot' she meant Hidan. She was never that close to Jashinist, she saw him as a big moron who thought he was so cool just because he was immortal. Every time he tried talking to Kokoro, she would just brush him off and tell him that she had some studying to do. Now the blue haired girl wishes she showed a little more respect to Hidan, he never really deserved the crap she gave him. It was his idea to adopt her 4 years ago.
"Never thought I'd hear you say that, Kokoro," Yahiko smirked and she looked up, "I always had the impression that you hated Hidan,"
"I never hated him, I just thought he was too dumb for me," she said and stood up. Ban stood up as well,
"Guess your right there, he always was pretty stupid," Yahiko chuckled and the four of them started walking back to their home.
By the time they were half way there, Yahiko noticed that Mizu looked a little uneasy,
"What's up, Man?" he asked the Hoshigaki boy,
"I feel as if someone is watching us," Mizu answered as he looked around.
Suddenly, someone appeared in front of the group of 7 year olds, they couldn't see who it was because it was too dark and the person was covered from head to toe in black. The person grabbed Ban by the wrist and pulled her over their shoulder. She let out a scream and tried to grab for her pouch that held hey clay and kunai knifes, but she felt the person yank the said item from her waist and threw it aside,
"Hey! Let her go!" Yahiko yelled and held his arms out wide, "ALMIGHTY PUSH!" He yelled, but it back fired on him and it pushes him back instead and he ended up hitting a tree. He made a sound of annoyance, of course it didn't work. His father only recently started teaching him the jutsu.
Mizu activated his sharingan, but before he could look the stranger in the eyes, they kneed him in the gut making him fall forward.
Kokoro saw a large puddle of water next to her and moved her hand towards it. Without even touching the liquid, it started floating on her command. She glared at the stranger that held her best friend (who was at the moment kicking and screaming). Suddenly the water shot forward.
The stranger leaped up into the air; dodging the attack, and lurched forward towards Kokoro as they punched her on the face, knocking her over. Before anyone could blind, the stranger disappeared along with Ban.
"Mizu! Use your sharingan!" Yahiko yelled as he tried to stand up. The said boy used his sharingan and looked around.
"I can't find them anywhere!" He yelled back as he went over to Kokoro and helped her up,
"We need to go get help, jiko," Kokoro said and the other two nodded and the three of them ran to the base.
Cliffhanger! The next chapter will be up soon! I swear!
Next time: Sasori goes out and looks for Ban, Pein finds new burses on Hime, and there will be a fire somewhere
